Why do Business in Barbados?

An Open Letter to High Net Worth Individuals and Investors

Dear Potential Friend of Barbados

I invite you to please give due consideration to Barbados as your preferred location to live, work and play.

Barbados has long been respected as a well-managed business jurisdiction that is stable, transparent and compliant. Today, following many decades of carefully planned strategic development and increasing maturity as an independent nation, we are more qualified than ever to invite you to establish a home for your family and your business here on our island. We can offer you a secure and sound infrastructure to support your business operations, a happy and healthy lifestyle for you and your family and a warm welcome into our community.

Barbados may be a small island but we have big ambitions. We want to create an environment where everybody has an opportunity to participate in and benefit from the success of this country; where the quality of life is as good as anywhere in the world; and where our products and services are always in demand. We want to be a global centre of excellence.

Our business leaders, our representative organizations and our government recognize that we cannot achieve these targets alone. Progressive Barbadians understand that for our country to become a world leader, we must first work alongside people who are already seasoned practitioners of global best practices. To that end, we want to welcome ‘best of class’ individuals and companies into our country.

The Government recently introduced a new immigration policy that provides for a Special Entry Permit designed to better facilitate residence arrangements in Barbados for high net worth individuals. This very significant decision to liberalize the country’s immigration laws represents a major step forward in support of Barbados’ revitalized efforts to attract a new wave of successful entrepreneurs and bona fide investors.

Barbados has firmly established itself as a leading jurisdiction for international business operations, with an ever-increasing credibility as a prime location for the substantive presence of regional and global companies. Unlike some similar jurisdictions, Barbados has never actively sought ‘brass plate’ entities but rather has preferred to attract those investors who recognize the value of establishing solid roots in this country. To successfully achieve this goal, Barbados has gone to great lengths to create the right kind of business environment that can empower international companies based on the island to not only compete in the world market place but to also thrive.

While most international investors who have already established in Barbados will acknowledge that they chose this jurisdiction because of its essential business qualities, the vast majority of them will all also talk in glowing terms about the excellent quality of life they enjoy here. It is very common to hear members of the international business community comment that the best thing about Barbados is the wonderful balance between being able to get the job done properly while enjoying a fantastic lifestyle. It is perhaps this intangible factor that most differentiates our country from competing jurisdictions around the world. Barbados has achieved a happy medium between building the sophisticated infrastructure of a developed nation while still retaining the appealing characteristics of a tropical island. In essence, it is a well-balanced country with a little bit of everything for everybody. Barbados works and it is fun!

Life in Barbados is good. Thanks to a year-round climate that provides near perfect weather conditions, combined with a salubrious natural environment, our island is tailor-made for outdoor pursuits and a healthy lifestyle. Family values are still important and children are well protected within a caring society. Education and health care standards are good. Our senior citizens regularly live to a hundred.

Barbados is a safe, tolerant and harmonious country where people from many diverse backgrounds and religious creeds are able to live peacefully together, despite the fact that all 285,000 of us are living within the confines of just 166 square miles. Perhaps due to the compact physical nature of the island, along with the generally friendly disposition of Bajans, Barbados has developed a culture that embraces residents from overseas. Rather than remaining isolated in enclaves, expatriates in our country mix with locals in a wide variety of circumstances.

Being one of the world’s leading vacation destinations, Barbados can provide magnificent accommodation and recreational facilities: including a diverse range of luxurious homes, some of which are associated with world-class golf courses, polo fields, residential marinas and a tennis centre; as well as numerous beachfront properties and countryside plantation houses.

Over the decades, Barbados has become the preferred vacation destination for royal families, leading statesmen, film stars, sports icons and acclaimed business personalities. While they undoubtedly appreciate the glorious natural beauty of Barbados and the multitude of first-class facilities, these celebrities also greatly value the privacy they can enjoy on this island. Barbadians are renowned for protecting the private lives of our VIP visitors. Generally speaking, you only hear publicly in Barbados that a celebrity has visited the island after they have already left. Most times you just don’t hear about it at all, since high profile residents can quietly enter and leave Barbados via the island’s private jet terminal or on board a luxury yacht.

Throughout its fascinating history Barbados has consistently achieved an eminent degree of success that is quite disproportionate to the limited physical dimensions of the island. Yet it is apparent that our country and its people are still capable of much greater advancement. There exists a gold mine of real potential that is yet to be tapped. As we embark on this exciting new phase of our national journey, when we are seeking to attract the world’s leading entities to our shores, dare I say that the best of Barbados is yet to come.

Now is an opportune moment to align your future with Barbados: for the benefit of your business, your family and your personal wellbeing.